Tigress Zeenat’s hide-and-seek with teams of foresters has become something of a thriller in Bengal’s Jhargram district.

The rocky landscape of Jhargram’s Belpahari has posed a challenge for foresters trying to capture the tigress, who entered Bengal on Friday after a 12-day journey through the woods in neighbouring Jharkhand. Zeenat had left Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve last month for Jharkhand.

A forest official said the current location of the tigress is Bhulabheda forest in Belpahari, around 47km fromJhargram town.

“The entire terrain in the region is undulating, the landscape is rocky, and the hills have been helping the tigress to find more hideouts than in the plains. It has become the major challenge to nab the tigress even after rigorous efforts in the past 36 hours,” said a senior forest official monitoring Mission Zeenatin Jhargram.

Jhargram, which is largely part of the Chhota Nagpur Plateau, has a more hilly terrain in Kankrajhore and Belpahari which border Jharkhand.

The Bengal forest department has sent a team from the Sunderbans, who are experts in catching tigers and familiar with the big cat’s habits and preferences, to assist their Jhargram counterparts.

But the difference in terrain is proving to be tricky even for the experts. “They are experts in handling tigers in the plainlands of Sunderbans. Here in Jhargram, the weather and landscape are completely different. Foresters from Odisha’s Similipal Tiger Reserve are fully supporting the arrangements,” said a source in theforest department.

In the past 12 days, the foresters have attempted several times to tranquillise the tigress — who has a radio-collar on — in vain.

The forest officials claimed that based on the tigress’s movements, she has been avoiding humans.

“We are relieved that despite there being many villages and hamlets inthe area, with food sources, the tigress is not targeting these pockets so far,” said aforest official.

Jhargram is known for being one of the main areas of human-elephant conflict in Jungle Mahal, where a dozen people lose their lives each year in elephant attacks. However, encountering a tiger is uncommon for the people of this region. In 2018, a tiger in Jhargram’s Lalgarh was killed by a group of villagers out of panic.

Foresters have divided teams into six groups and put up cages with live bait like buffalo calves and goats.

On Saturday, some villagers spread the rumour that apart from Zeenat, another tigress named Yamuna had also entered Jhargram.

However, Jhargram divisional forest officer Umar Imam cleared the air.

“There is only one tigress in our jurisdiction, and foresters are working round the clock to ensure that she is caged soon,” he said. “We have alerted people of 10 villages adjacent to the forest where she is currently located. We asked them not to venture inside the forest and to let us know if they need to come out of their homes late at night or early in the morning,”said Imam.

Among the villages in Belpahari are Kankrajhore, Amlasole, Daldali, Chirimara and Orali.

However, people in Belpahari have stopped coming out of their homes after dusk, and residents say the roads are deserted after sunset.

“People are not even sending their children to school for fear of the tiger,” said Avik Kumar Dutta, a wildlife enthusiast and rescuer who livesin Belpahari.

Foresters said they have been continuing the search for the tigress discreetly to avoid causing unnecessary panic in nearby villages.

It’s a race against time, they said, because Zeenat’s location in Bhulabheda forest is adjacent to Kankrajhore, a popular winter tourist spot. During the Christmas-New Year period, thousands of tourists reachthe region.

“We have requested owners of homestays and resorts to advise their guests not to venture into the forest,” DFO Imam added.